And as I ruminate, I wonder:

Is the red ink used in correction helpful or harmful? We have grown up seeing the red blotches in our answer sheets. Teachers have for long used red ink; the reason being red ink makes it easier for children to spot errors and perk up.

But a recent news headline read: Teachers in UK banned from using ‘confrontational’ red ink in case it upsets children. In Australia too, the educational strategy is: Don’t mark in red pen (which can be seen as aggressive) – use a different color.

Apart from kids getting upset, it may create anxiety too, especially the moment the teacher hands out the corrected papers to students in a class. Each one tends to have a sneak peek of the others marks too! And it is common nature, that one’s eyes glances through to the red & blue tick marks in everyone’s papers, especially true for the front benchers.

I don’t think that red is demotivating for a child? One should not get too upset by IT! I think it is just a protocol and not meant to demotivate. And use of a different color is going to be no different. After some years there will be a ban on that color too.

*(Disabled became handicapped and now handicapped is not acceptable it should be differently abled.) I hope this kind of banning does not spread all over the world.